South Africa

Anti-apartheid fighter comes to London to celebrate World Mission Sunday

11/10/2013 4:00 pm

Bishop Kevin Dowling, renowned anti-apartheid fighter and now head of the Tapologo Project in Rustenburg, South Africa, will be coming to London to celebrate World Mission Sunday on 20 October 2013.

Bishop Kevin, who works with orphans in the platinum mine communities in Rustenburg, will be visiting schools and sharing his experiences of missionary outreach. Invited by Missio, he will be celebrating Mass at Westminster Cathedral on World Mission Sunday.

World Mission Sunday is the one day of the year when Catholics all over the world pray for and share what they have to support growing faith communities in developing countries and to make Jesus better known and loved throughout the world.

This year World Mission Sunday falls on 20 October. Every parish in every diocese where the Church is present will be dedicating Mass to missionary outreach.

Pope Francis, in his message for World Mission Sunday declared: ‘Everyone should be able to experience the joy of being loved by God, the joy of salvation! It is a gift that one cannot keep to oneself, but it is to be shared. If we want to keep it only to ourselves, we will become isolated, sterile and sick Christians. The proclamation of the Gospel is part of being disciples of Christ and it is a constant commitment that animates the whole life of the Church.’

Missio, the Pontifical charity for worldwide mission, coordinates World Mission Sunday and this year is encouraging Catholics to celebrate being ‘one faith, one family.’

South Africa is the focus of World Mission Sunday and money raised in parishes in England and Wales will go to support the work of missionaries like bishop Kevin and his team of volunteers.

Mgr Canon James Cronin, National Director of Missio England and Wales, said: ‘World Mission Sunday is our chance to join Pope Francis in building a Universal Church reaching out to the most marginalised in our world. Catholic missionaries go to areas most in need of Gospel values of love, hope and grace so that our brothers and sisters overseas can hear that Jesus loves them. On the 20th October, we can all become missionaries through prayer and giving to the worldwide Church.’

To make a donation to World Mission Sunday, or to find out more, please visit www.missio.org.uk

Background

World Mission Sunday takes place on the penultimate Sunday of October every year.

World Mission Sunday is coordinated by Missio, the official instrument for the mission of the Catholic Church overseas.

Missio supports every mission diocese in the world until they are able to be self-sufficient.

Missio is the umbrella for four societies, working together for the Church where it is young and poor. To provide for the different needs of the overseas Church, Missio focuses on four main areas of provision:

The building of Church infrastructure and support of faith communities

The training of local priests and sisters

Children’s projects (faith, health and education)

The promotion of world mission through prayer and study

Offerings from Catholics in England and Wales on World Mission Sunday are combined with donations to the Association for the Propagation of the Faith (APF) in 120 countries and distributed to all 1,069 mission dioceses worldwide.

In 2012 the money collected through World Mission Sunday amounted to £459,213 and supported 50 dioceses in 6 countries.